Competency-based education (CBE) has become well-accepted as a powerful way to personalize learning. Today's advanced technologies have enhanced CBE even further. Practitioners in the field are seeking means to take advantage of technology to increase CBE's effectiveness and efficiency, especially for adult learners. Microlearning and digital open…

Districts across the country are facing severe shortages of teachers--especially in certain subjects (math, science, special education, career and technical education, and bilingual education) and in specific schools (urban, rural, high-poverty, high-minority, and low-achieving). The severity of the teacher shortage problem varies significantly by…

Teachers are increasingly recognized as the most important in-school factor in student achievement, yet the quality of the country's K-12 teaching force is not up to snuff. Much of the blame has been placed on education schools, which have come under fire for failing to produce enough high-performing teachers. Both initial certification programs,…

Will the digital-learning movement repeat the mistakes of the charter-school movement? How much more successful might today's charter universe look if yesterday's proponents had focused on the policies and practices needed to ensure its quality, freedom, and resources over the long term? What mistakes might have been avoided? Damaging scandals…

MICROTEACHING IS THE CREATION OF A MINIATURE TEACHING SITUATION UNDER EASILY CONTROLLED CONDITIONS, WITH IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK FOR THE STUDENT TEACHER. ONE HUNDRED FORTY STUDENTS IN SIX METHODS COURSES EACH TEACH A SELF-CONTAINED 4- TO 6-MINUTE LESSON ON A SINGLE, SPECIFIC CONCEPT TO A "CLASS" OF THREE TO FIVE LOCAL STUDENTS AT THE…

Responding to a shortage of special education teachers with multicultural training, the University of Utah designed a series of American Indian specialization courses for teachers, leading to a master's degree in professional practice. Essential course components include cultural awareness, nonbiased assessment, specialized curriculum and…

Materials collected in this book and in Volume I (SP 003 238) are related to the Multi-State Teacher Education Project (M-STEP). They deal with program experiments and resulting directions, including guide-line type materials resulting from the project effort and items prepared by other sources as project-centered aids. Part I, "A Forward…

Increasing pressure has been placed on teacher education to prepare teachers to educate bilingual/bicultural students using scientifically-based teaching methods. Socio-cultural theory and pedagogy have emerged as a research-based foundation for diversity teacher preparation. Socio-cultural theory rests on the premise that learning is social,…

Stimulated by the ineffectiveness of the English department's teacher preparation program that remained remote from the actual classroom situation and was conducted by a single methods teacher who had not been in a public school teaching situation for at least ten years, the department chairman at the University of Utah attempted to make his group…

This is a collection of reports on innovative practices in student teaching programs. The label "innovative" is justified on the basis of the investigation's scope. Identification of innovative student teaching practices was accomplished by contacting chief state school officers, chairmen and members of state commissions on teacher…